Tag: Bjork

For issue 59, Visionaire collaborated with Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin to create a mini library of childrens books entitled Fairytale. Together, they recruited and paired up artists from music (Bjork), fashion (Viktor & Rolf) , literature (Cecily von Ziegesar and Stéphanie Cohen Chaptal), art (Richard Phillips, Douglas Gordon and John Baldessari) and film (James Franco and Kirsten Dunst) to come up with eleven books with themes that ranged from the traditional to the surreal. In addition, each book used a different technique to add another dimension; the book by Bjork, Sjon, M/M Paris and Gabriela Fridriksdottir played a new track by Bjork (The Comet Song from the Moomins movie) as you flicked through the pages, Viktor & Rolf used glow in the dark ink and Pierre Huyghe and Mario Bellantin created a scratch and sniff book. Other unique touches included holograms, flocking, foil stamping and lenticular images. The collection was held together by a black patent leather traditional bookstrap and produced in an edition of 4000 copies. A portion of the proceeds from this issue went towards funding scholarships for the Blue School, a not-for-profit creative elementary school in New York.

Jo Ratcliffe and Stephanie Cohen Chaptal

Bjork, Sjon, Gabriela Fridriksdottir and M/M Paris

John Baldessari

Karen Kilimnik and Kirsten Dunst

Ugo Rondinone and John Giorno

Richard Phillips and Cecily Von Ziegesar

Viktor & Rolf

Pierre Huyghe and Mario Bellatin

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In 2006 it was announced that Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin would be releasing a retrospective of their work entitled Pretty Much Everything through publishing house Steidl. I am a huge admirer of their work and waited with baited breath for its release, however it never materialised and it looked like it may never be released. Then last year Taschen announced that they would now be releasing the career retrospective with the same title. Even better, the issue would be a limited edition of 1200 copies and be beautifully housed in a huge slipcase with one of Lamsweerde and Matadin’s iconic images printed on it. I finally received my copy this month, after waiting six years, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

The word Tome gets thrown around a lot when artists release career-spanning books but this really does deserve the description, it is enormous and weighs a ton! The slipcase is beautiful and has been meticulously designed by long time collaborators M/M Paris. The fabric covered case has the image Me Kissing Vinoodh (Eternally) printed on it and, in a nice addition, has an origami silkscreen poster wrapped over one corner. Inside the case are two volumes signed by the artists and with photos tipped in on the covers. The 666 images inside document their career to date and cover their fine art, fashion and editorial work. As you make your way through the books you are reminded of just how many iconic images of the last two decades and more were created by the duo. Among my favourite images are those they created with M/M Paris such as Alphabet, Alphamen, Punctuation and the Balenciaga campaigns and their work with another of my two favourites Bjork and Visionaire. In addition to the two volumes of images, their is a third book containing essays and interviews that cover the history, inspiration and genius of Lamsweerde and Matadin.

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If memory serves me right this is one of the first books that triggered my desire for collecting limited edition books. I present, Visionaire 36 – Power. For those of you that haven’t heard of Visionaire before (there can’t be many of you!), it is “a multi-format album of fashion and art produced in exclusive numbered limited editions”. Since buying this one, my collection has expanded to 20 different issues (there are currently 62).

This issue came in an injection moulded plastic case and the book had Bjork on the cover (one of my favourite musicians). Inside, the images were vibrant and printed using a number of different effects. Below are some of my favourite images.